The desire to better understand the transmission of infectious disease in the real world has motivated the representation of epidemic diffusion in the context of quantitative simulation. In recent decades, both individual-based (such as Agent-Based) models and aggregate models (such as System Dynamics) are widely used in epidemiological modeling. This paper compares the difference between system dynamics models and agent-based models in the context of Tuberculosis (TB) transmission, considering smoking as a risk factor.

Healthcare simulation models have attracted significant offered important insights in to health policy selection. More complete accounting for the cost and health implications of upstream interventions is hindered by the need to consider impact on, and interactions between, multiple comorbidities. Within this paper, we explore several distinct approaches for representing comorbidities, some of them at the aggregate level, and some of them at the individual level. All of these representations have the virtue of being declarative, in that they allow the user to focus on what is to be characterized, rather than how it is to be implemented. Our exploration suggests that while several aggregate representations of comorbidities are possible, they suffer from a variety of shortcomings, ranging from low fidelity to combinatorial blowup. While individual-level representations impose a heavy performance load, greater difficulties in calibration and less rapid analysis, such representations do offer greater transparency, modifiability, scalability, and modularity, and ease of representing transmission and influence networks. With much to recommend each approach, further research is needed to shed additional light on the tradeoffs and identify situations where one representation is preferable to another.

While the System Dynamics modeling process can yield invaluable high level insights, it gives rise to a tremendous amount of detail complexity. In the course of their work, modelers must track successive model versions, the motivation for and assumptions underlying particular “what if” scenarios, and the implicit relationships between scenarios, model versions and various external artifacts such as spreadsheets, symbolic mathematics calculations, and external documentation.

Catastrophic events such as hurricanes, earthquakes or floods require emergency responders to rapidly distribute emergency relief supplies to protect the health and lives of victims. In this paper we develop a simulation and optimization framework for managing the logistics of distributing relief supplies in a multi-tier supply network. The simulation model captures optimized stocking of relief supplies, distribution operations at federal or state-operated staging facilities, demand uncertainty, and the dynamic progression of disaster response operations. We apply robust optimization techniques to develop optimized stocking policies and dispatch of relief supplies between staging facilities and points of distribution. The simulation framework accommodates a wide range of disaster scenarios and stressors, and helps assess the efficacy of response plans and policies for better disaster response.

Although research into simulation of construction continues to advance and thrive in the academic world, application of simulation in the construction industry remains limited. Stakeholders on construction projects have yet to adopt simulation as their default tool of choice for managing large complex projects, instead of traditional techniques, which are often inadequate. This paper describes the building of an asphalt paving simulator, as an example of the rigor and effort required in developing construction simulation models, and then briefly describes an alternative model building method currently being researched which may potentially make it easier and faster for stakeholders to quickly build construction simulation models.

This paper presents a comprehensive simulation project in the area of an automotive supplier. The company produces car styling serial and original accessory parts made from plastic for internal and external applications in passenger cars. For the foaming division, which is identified as the bottleneck, different personnel and qualification scenarios, set-up optimizations and lot-sizing strategies are compared with the current situation. Key performance measures reported are inventory, tardiness and service level. The changes in organizational costs (e.g. employee training, additional employees, etc.), due to the scenarios, are not considered and are traded off with the logistical potential by the company itself. Results of the simulation study indicate that a combination of an additional fitter during night shift, minor reductions of set-up times and reduced lot-sizes leads to an inventory reduction of ~10.6% and a service level improvement of ~8% compared to the current situation.

A dual toll pricing is a conceptual policy in which policy maker imposes toll on both hazardous materials (hazmat) vehicles as well as regular vehicles for using populated road segments to mitigate a risk of hazmat transportation. It intends to separate the hazmat traffic flow from the regular traffic flow via controlling the dual toll. In order to design the dual toll pricing policy on a highly realistic road network environment and detailed human behaviors, an extended Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) framework is employed to mimic human decision behaviors in great detail. The proposed approach is implemented in AnyLogic agent based simulation software with using a traffic data of Albany, NY. Also, search algorithms in OptQuest are used to determine the optimum dual toll pricing policy which results in the minimum risk and travel cost based on the simulation results. The result reveals the effectiveness of the proposed approach in devising a reli-able policy under the realistic road network conditions.

In healthcare the reimbursement of medical providers is an important topic and can influence the overall outcome. We present the agent-based healthcare model, which allows a comparison of reimbursement schemes in outpatient care. It models patients and medical providers as agents. In the simulation of healthcare system, patients develop medical problems (i.e., diseases) and a need for medical services. This leads to utilization of medical providers. The reimbursement system receives information on the patients’ visits via its generic interface, which facilitates an easy replacement. We describe the assumptions of the model in detail and show how it makes extensive use of available Austrian routine care data for its parameterization. The model design is optimized for utilizing as much of these data as possible. However, many assumptions have to be simplifications. Further work and detailed comparisons with healthcare data will provide insight on which assumptions are valid descriptions of the real process.

We propose an epidemic agent-based simulation model for disease (TB) transmission dynamics study and to find out the role of various contact networks. Our model simulates the TB epidemic course across a single population and uses a hierarchical network of contacts in three levels, typical to the transmission of airborne diseases (Mossong et al. 2005). Parameters are chosen from the literature, and the model is calibrated to a setting of high TB incidence. We use our model to study the transmission dynamics at an individual level with regard to the timing and distribution of secondary infections from a single source. The average time for disease diffusion to reach 50% of infections at an individual level is estimated, and the timing patterns are compared among different networks. We perform sensitivity analysis of results with regard to multiple parameter values, and discuss the implications for TB control policy.

After its first introduction in 1999, West Nile Virus (WNV) has spread very widely along the east coasts of the United States before appearing in Texas where 1792 cases were reported of which 82 were fatal in 2012. The interesting patterns and behavior of the virus and its amplified impact on the county of Dallas drove this work. This paper encompasses a thorough development of a systems dynamics simulation model of virus's infectious behavior and dynamics in Dallas County, TX utilizing historical data collected and the aid of suitable software packages.